Hiring a Vancouver Sign Company. Part 1: Things to Consider First

28 Nov Hiring a Vancouver Sign Company. Part 1: Things to Consider First

If you need business signage and are considering hiring a Vancouver sign company, you may have difficulty knowing how to evaluate which sign company to engage. A quick Google search of “signs vancouver” will reveal pages of choices, but how can you determine which is the right choice for your needs?

Often, business owners will look at price, and that is certainly a valid method if you aren’t too concerned with quality, but, pricing doesn’t tell you much other than that the company’s signage services won’t break the bank. What about experience, understanding of design, marketing knowledge, variety, and evidence of quality? If you want to compare apples to apples, these are the factors to examine.

Tales of Signage Woe

We’ve all made decisions based on price alone and we may even have experienced the truth in the adage “You get what you pay for”. Frequently enough, through our two decades of making signs in Vancouver, Sandbox Signs + Graphics has heard many stories of disappointment from clients who have purchased services from the “cheapo signs” stores. You know the ones. They usually have some non-descript storefront, few signage examples (if any) on their website, and rely on huge – often badly designed signs – to advertise their own business. While not all of these “low cost” sign companies are necessarily “bad”, again, you typically get what you pay for.

The truth is, the problem is often not with the service they provide. There is a market for that. The issue is that some of their clients have unrealistic expectations – disproportionate to the price they pay – and are sorely disappointed when they see the result. Should they be? Not really. They paid for a $30 sign and got exactly what they paid for. The sign maker, after all, did accomplish what they set out to do. They made a sign, delivered fast, at a low price. Was it good though? It’s nearly impossible to achieve “good” delivered “fast” and “cheap”.

The “Pick Any Two” triangle rule (borrowed from Project Management 101 ) states: “Fast, good, and cheap. Pick any two”. It applies to all endeavours, including sign making. The rule illustrates that these three core project properties are related and one property will always be influenced negatively by how the other two are combined. You can never (or very rarely) have all three. Here’s why:

If a sign is good and fast, it will be more expensive.
If a sign is cheap and fast, it will be of poor quality.
If a sign is good and cheap, it will take a very long time.